Plea as pet ducks go missing from Janet Barnes' Weymouth garden

A WEYMOUTH woman has launched an appeal after two of her pet ducks went missing.

Mrs Janet Barnes, 71, from Littlemoor Road, noticed the birds had gone missing on Wednesday evening as she went to lock them up in their pen for the night.

Three ducks originally went missing on the Wednesday night, and Mrs Barnes stayed up all night to search for them. One of the ducks returned at 4am on Thursday morning with the other two still not returning.

One, which is a Khaki Campbell, is called Molly with brown feathers, and the other is a drake, called Norman, who has a very distinctive blue bill and bright yellow feet.

Mrs Barnes has kept the domesticated ducks in her garden for three years.

She said: “They were there at 8.45pm when I went to feed them and then when I went to lock them in for the night they had all gone. There was no sign that they had been taken by a fox or anything like that, they must have flown off. I looked all night for them and one came back at about 4am, but the other two haven’t.

Mrs Barnes spent all day on Thursday and Friday looking for them, and has also placed posters in the surrounding area with the birds’ descriptions.

She has also put up a small reward for the safe return of the birds, and spoke of her worry for the wellbeing of her pets.

She added: “They are very important to me, they are my pets. Molly is only a year old and I have had Norman for about two years, I bred him at my house and he hatched here. I keep them in the garden, and they have never gone missing before.

“There is no way they have been taken, they must have flown off.

“I am quite worried about them and I really hope they can come back safe. The thing is they have never tried to fly before so they might not be able to make it back here on their own.”